captioning for people with hearing loss
Captioning is a way to provide
communications access to people with hearing loss. Various forms of
captioning, including movies, TV, and the internet, ensure that sound
information is available to people with hearing loss.
Captioning generally involves the presentation of
acoustic information in a textual format. It has much the same look as
subtitles on a foreign film. The difference is that the text presents
the language that is being spoken (generally English in the US), rather
than a translation of a different language.
If you're
interested in locating captioning providers or equipment, please check the Captioning
Page of our Resources Directory.
Captioning
can open up a variety of mediums to hard of hearing, late deafened, and
oral deaf people. The most common is television.
Too few television shows are captioned, but this is the medium in which
captioning is most prevalent. Also, thanks to Federal
law, the percentage of captioned television content is increasing
all the time.
Another captioning application that has a
significant impact on the lives of people with hearing loss is Computer
Assisted Real Time (CART) Captioning. This is a system in which a
captioner transcribes speech word-for-word in real time and makes the
text output available to consumers on a laptop or projected onto a large
screen.
One of the social
activities that many hard of hearing, late deafened, and oral deaf
people give up early in their hearing loss career is movies. If a person
can't hear the dialog, a movie isn't very enjoyable. Fortunately, we are
seeing an increasing number of captioned movies,
which make movies accessible to people with hearing loss.
What about internet
captioning? Because of increasing use of sound, much of the internet may soon become inaccessible to
people with hearing loss. This is an extremely important issue, and one
we all need to understand.
And another relatively new
practice - the captioning of live theater
performances!
Imagine having
access to captioning any place, any time, in any situation. It's not
quite here yet, but the advent of Remote
Captioning promises something like that in the near future.
January
2001 - Have you watched a DVD movie yet? If not, chances are you soon
will. WIll it have captions - or only subtitles? What's the difference?
Which is better? Read our story on DVD Captions vs.
Subtitles.
March 2002 - Here's a
great article by Tamar Clarke on the various forms of captioning, with
emphasis on CART.
April 2002 - Have you ever heard of VoiceWriting?
Don't feel bad if you haven't; it's pretty new stuff. VoiceWriting is
the process of using voice recognition software to produce text from the
spoken word, instead of more traditional methods like court reporter
machines. My excitement about this new technology is evident in this
recent article.
April 2002 - The current
critical shortage of captioners seems to have gotten the attention of
our national politicians, as Congress recently allocated
nearly $6 million to train captioners.
October 2003 - The NCRA has
just announced a new procedure to certify CART and
television captioners.
August 2004 - The 2006 captioning
requirements are right around the corner. Soon you'll be able to turn on
almost any TV show and have it be captioned, right? It may not be that
easy, as we discuss in this analysis of
captioners available to meet the 2006 requirements.
October 2005 -
Here's a great idea for something like universal
captioning access using a PDA!
June 2006 - DVD “CC”
LABELING CLASS SETTLEMENT
July 2006 -
Guidelines for Creating Accessible Digital Materials Published by
WGBH/NCAM
August 2006 -
NAD Files Complaint About Lack of Captioning at
Football Games
September 2006 - Interview of
"Named Plaintiff" in DVD Captioning Case
September 2006 -
Suit Demands Captioning at Redskins Games
December
2006 - FCC Approves IP
Captioned Telephone
December 2006 - FCC
Approves IP Captioned Telephone Service
February 2007 - Few
DVD players can decode closed captioning
February 2007 - NAD
Promotes "Read Captions Across America"
February 2007 - NAD
and CaptionMax Cooperate to Provide More Captioned Media
June 2007
- Digital Revolution Ignores Captioning Requirements
July 2007 - Court Reporters Face Diminishing Ranks, NCRA
Warns
July 2007 - More Captioners Needed
August 2007 - FedEx Field Captioning Suit Enters 2nd
Season
August 2007 - DOE Funds Mobile Media Captioning Research
August 2007 - WGBH to Develop Captioning for Handheld
Media
September 2007 - iTunes 7.4 adds closed captioning
September 2007 - TDI
Conference Workshop: Captioning and Audio Description for DVD and
Multimedia Environment
November 2007 - Captions Coming to Inflight
Entertainment
November 2007 - Planetarium adds closed captioning
November 2007 -
Gallaudet Learning System
Includes Captions
December 2007 - Canadian Captioning School Opens
February 2008 -
National Park Service to Provide Open Captioning
February 2008 - NCRA Lauds House Bill to
Increase Number of Captioners
August 2008 -
Some Minnesota Political Ads MUST Be
Captioned!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2001
If you haven't yet watched a DVD movie, chances are you soon will.
When you do, you should be aware that most DVDs offer two different
"captioning" options.
One is the television closed captions that you are already familiar
with. They are provided for people with hearing loss on DVDs, just like
they are on television and VCR tapes. You turn these on and off with
your television set.
The other option is subtitles, which are offered on most, but not all
DVDs. They are generally available in multiple languages, and are really
intended for foreign language speakers rather than people with hearing
loss. (So why do they include English subtitles on a DVD with spoken
English? Good question!) You turn these on and off with your DVD player,
not your television set.
Closed captions and subtitles have different formats, and you may
find that you prefer one over the other. But be aware that captions are
intended for people with hearing loss, while subtitles are not. This
means that captions provide information about background noises (phones
ringing, environment noises, etc.), while subtitles often do not.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2005
A recent
article by Dr. Dean Edell described the efforts of optical
engineer Leanne West to make captioning more universally available in
public venues. Leanne's idea promises to provide captioning in any
public facility that has a wireless network (which will soon be all of
them!)
With
a wireless network already in place, it's a simple technical matter to
stream captions over that network. The captions would be received and
displayed by personal digital assistants (PDAs) which incoprorate the
appropriate software. With some standards in place for both transmitter
and receivers, something approaching universal captioning access
is certainly achievable.
So where
might this system be used? Virtually anyplace where people with hearing
loss have trouble understanding announcements - sporting events,
airports, hospitals, etc.
Here's
Dr. Edell's article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September
2006
The
National Association of the Deaf has filed a lawsuit against the
Washington Redskins to get team officials to offer closed-captioning for
the deaf and hearing-impaired at FedEx Field. The class-action suit, filed
in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, says the team is in violation of the
Americans With Disabilities Act for failing to provide captioning during
games.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2007
Manufacturers of DVD players aren't listening to
the hearing impaired. How else to explain why so few DVD players decode
closed captioning built into movie discs? Even though federal law
requires televisions with screens 13 inches or larger to include
closed-caption decoding, there is no such mandate for DVD players. . . .
. For many people, basic subtitles are enough. But there's a
distinction. Where subtitles display only the spoken word, closed
captions create a full translation of the soundtrack by adding sounds.
If a car screeches off-camera, you'll know it. If a phone rings or a
baby cries in its crib or a rooster crows, you'll know it. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2007
Colleen Farrell is a 21-year-old college senior
who's been shut out of television's digital revolution. She wants to watch
her favorite shows online. She's up for downloading programs to her iPod.
She would like to watch shows on her brother's high-definition set.
There's just one problem: Ms. Farrell is one of 23 million Americans who
are deaf or hard of hearing and must rely on closed captioning. In the
rush to create new products and make television programming available
anytime, anywhere, the need for closed captioning is being overlooked.
The major broadcast networks have launched state-of-the-art online video
players -- that do not include captions. Apple has revolutionized TV
viewing by making shows available for download on iTunes -- without
captions. The television industry is spending billions to deliver
spectacular high-definition signals -- but viewing captions on HD
programming is a Byzantine process that has frustrated many viewers.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2007
Editors: Court reporters and captioners are already in short supply,
and the number of practitioners graduating from training programs is on
the decline. Here's the press release from the folks at the National Court
Reporters Association.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Court cases like those surrounding Paris Hilton and Scooter Libby are
high drama for Americans, but everyday routine for court reporters. As
guardians of the spoken word recorded into text, their skills in a
litigious society are in growing demand.
But the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) reports a downward
trend in the number of court reporters graduating this year from NCRA-certified
programs, with only about 350 graduates in 2007, when three times th at
number are needed nationwide.
"These highly trained professionals -- who are in critically short
supply -- are uniquely able to capture and convert spoken words into
information that can be read, searched and archived," says Mark Golden,
NCRA executive director and CEO. "This specialization has created new
career paths, including broadcast captioning and realtime translation
services for people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing."
According to Reesa Parker, NCRA's president, the number of schools
taking part in NCRA's certification programs and their graduates have
steadily declined over the decade. Almost 1,000 students graduated from
more than 100 NCRA-certified schools in 1996. This year, 62 certified
programs across the U.S. will graduate fewer than 350 court reporters.
Ironically, work for court reporting graduates is plentiful in
government, professional firms or freelancing, with annual earnings often
exceeding $70,000, according to an NCRA release. The federal
Telecommunications Act also boosted demand for court reporters by
mandating large increases in the numbers and types of television
broadcasts that must be closed-captioned. Last year, due to the shortage
of broadcast captioners, the deadline set by the Act was missed for
closed-captioning of all new television programs in English. Millions of
hard-of- hearing Americans were left without access to programming and
critical emergency information.
To help meet the need for court reporters, NCRA is reaching out to
potential students online. In addition, Congress is considering
competitive grants to train captioners and reporters who specialize in
realtime and Communication Access Realtime Translation. CART provides an
immediate translation of all spoken words and environmental sounds for the
deaf, hard-of-hearing or those learning English as a second language.
"The training is challenging," says NCRA President Parker. "Court
reporting cours es take two to four years. They demand a great deal of
practice and highly-developed skills of dexterity and concentration. But
for those who become guardians of the record, the rewards and sense of
making a real contribution make it all worthwhile."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2007
Last August, the National Association of the Deaf
filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Washington Redskins fans to get team
officials to offer closed-captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired at
FedEx Field. As another football season begins, the two sides continue to
wage an off-field battle. Steve Clark, a court stenographer, was hired by
the Washington Redskins to transcribe calls during games in response to a
lawsuit filed by three fans seeking closed-captioning at FedEx Field. The
fans in the suit say it's not enough. (Photos By Hamil R. Harris -- The
Washington Post) The fans, from Maryland, regularly attend home games and
want the Redskins and FedEx Field officials to display captioning on
scoreboards and video monitors for all announcements, and plays and
penalties called, during the game. One of the fans, Shane Feldman of
Silver Spring, said he misses parts of the game because he cannot hear
information announced on the public-address system.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2007
The Bush Administration apparently believes there
will be a growing demand for mobile video content. According to
noncommercial WGBH-TV Boston, which pioneered TV captioning in the 1970's,
the Department of Education has given it more than half a million dollars
to develop a system for captioning content delivered to iPods, cell phones
and other handheld devices. DOE's National Institute on Rehabilitation
Research (http://www.ed.go) has given the station a $600,000 grant over
three years.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
As promised at Wednesday's iPod event, Apple has
released iTunes 7.4, adding support for the creation custom ringtones,
among other changes. According to notes accompanying the update, iTunes
7.4 gives you the ability to play purchased videos with closed captioning
(when available), rate your favorite albums and watch videos at a larger
size inside the iTunes window. Apple has also made a security change to
iTunes in this release to prevent maliciously crafted music files from
causing the application to quit or execute arbitrary code.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2007
Adler Planetarium recently installed closed
captioning in their theaters. It is the first and only planetarium in the
world that had adapted their shows for deaf and hard of hearing patrons.
Shows at the planetarium are viewed on domed ceilings. Using a hand-held
captioning device, deaf and hard of hearing people can experience the
wonders of the universe. Inside the Starrider Theater 'Black Holes: The
Other Side of Infinity" is playing. Deaf and hard of hearing patrons can
benefit from the information using I-Caption.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
In a Civil Rights Directive issued January 31, 2008, the U.S.
Department of the Interior, the federal agency that runs the national park
system and other programs, announced that they will require that all
audio-visual media must be open captioned and not closed captioned. They
note also that "This in no way negates [their] responsibility to provide
assistive listening devices for program participants who are hard of
hearing."
The Directive explains that they opted for open captioning because it
"provides the most effective and efficient method of access... Even where
close captioned media is available, it has been found that much staff time
and effort is often taken to ensure that captioning is turned off and on
in a timely manner for participants with disabilities ... switches may be
easily broken or tampered with causing ... non- compliance."
For a copy of the Directive or questions, please contact Carroll Andre,
Chief, Public Civil Rights Division, Office of Civil Rights, US Dept of
the Interior, Email carroll_andre@ios.doi.gov or to file an ADA or other
civil rights complaint against the US Dept of the Interior, follow
instructions on their website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2008
Minnesota candidates using radio, television or
Web videos to get their messages out will have to back up their ads with
text. A new Minnesota law requires candidates for state-level offices to
include closed captioning. It was promoted as a way to help deaf or
hard-of-hearing voters access the political content. The requirement
applies to professionally produced ads less than two minutes long and
meant to influence voters. Transcripts of radio ads must be posted on the
candidate's Web site. Viewers have to trigger the closed-caption function
on their TV sets to see the new feature. Most of the ads this election
season will be run by candidates for U.S. Senate and the presidency. The
captioning law doesn't apply to them because they operate under federal
campaign rules. Judicial candidates are also exempt.
